Method of print dyeing textile materials from a photograph and products made therefrom

ABSTRACT

A method for preparation of the final film used for engraving a flat screen, belt screen or rotary screen for a printing machine. The final film is prepared from a photograph of the image to be reproduced and engraved by known techniques on a screen so as to provide a continuous repetitive pattern on the face of a pile fabric dyed in a continuous print dyeing process. 
     Select areas of photographic images are montaged and put into a repeat pattern within a predetermined outline to establish the basic repeat. Four continuous tone color separations are made of the selected pattern to provide yellow, blue, red and black continuous tone negatives which represent the four colors of the original image. Each color separation is posterized and half toned to provide eight positive films. The films are selectively combined, blown up to the desired repeat size to provide a negative or positive which is used to prepare a flat bed screen or rotary screen for an otherwise conventional printing process.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to print dyeing of flat materials wherein it isdesired to produce an image thereon which gives a three dimensionaleffect appearance.

While the invention has applicability to print dyeing of all types ofmaterials, textile fabric and flat piece materials such as, for example,upholstery fabric, sheets, drapery, flat work, formica, ceramics, china,and the like, the invention is particularly applicable to print dyeing apile fabric materials, such as, carpeting and rugs, wherein the dyepenetrates the surface of the face yarns and a continuous image isformed on the surface of the pile yarns in a continuous print process.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Recent styling trends in tufted carpet involve color printing of thecarpet pile on a greige background or on a single predyed backgroundcolor. Silk screens, flat bed screens, belt screens or rotary screensare commonly employed to produce a variety of repetitive printed colorpatterns on carpeting and other pile fabrics. Ever-changing publictastes have created demands for new and unusual color patterns in pilecarpeting.

Prior art machines are known for printing of carpet pile to producevarying and non-montonous designs in one or more colors. However, themachines and techniques employed have not been satisfactory in that theresulting patterns are generally the work of individual artists whodesign a particular pattern from which a screen is made, much the sameway a painter prepares and paints an oil painting. Accordingly, eachstyle or design is thus subject to and limited to the artist's ability.

Printed screens used in the carpet industry are not readily adapted forprinting fine detail obtainable by photographic methods. To this end,the mesh size of carpet printing screens generally contains about 60-74openings per inch. A conventional half tone screen used to form halftone positive film normally contains about 50-150 lines. For the generalrun of letterpress printing, screen sizes of 65-88 are commonly useddepending primarily on the smoothness of the surface of the paper onwhich the halftone is printed. The smoother the surface, the finer thescreen.

In applying photographic techniques to carpet printing, I have foundthat several factors directly affect the capability of drying. First,carpet surfaces are relatively rough tending to resist even applicationof dye and penetration when printing extremely fine detail. Secondly,the thickness of printing screens for rotary printer applications tendto build up and fill in the holes. In flat bed screens, the applicationof lacquers tends to, again, build up in the extremely fine hole areas.As a result, fine detail printing becomes difficult to achieve. Attemptsto overcome this drawback and impart more realism into patterns haveresorted to the interaction of computers and optical scanning techniquesto reproduce an image the face of a fabric corresponding to a selectedphotograph, artwork or other type of graphic material. Such processesare extremely expensive.

It is, therefore, a primary object of the present invention to overcomethe drawbacks of prior art processes and provide a method ofcontinuously print dyeing textile materials such as pile carpeting whichgives a design having a realistic image developed from photographic artwork.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The above and other objects of the pesent invention are accomplished bycombining graphic art techniques to the carpet printing process. To thisend, the final flat screen, belt screen or rotary screen of the printingmachine is developed from a photographic art work which is montaged todevelop a desired repeat pattern. From this selected repeat pattern,continuous tone color separations are made which are used to createposterized and half-toned films. The resultant film is selectivelycombined and blown-up and the blow-up used to prepare the screen for aprinting operation.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present inventive process has applicability to continuous printdyeing of scenes and images on a variety of products including, but notlimited to flat work, textile piece goods and fabrics, pile fabrics andthe like, but it is particularly applicable to the dyeing of carpetmaterials in that it enables the dyeing of designs and patterns on thesurface of the face yarns which gives a realism and three dimensionaleffect not heretofore obtainable by conventional techniques.

In accordance with the present invention, the first step in the designof the carpet is the selection of the subject to be reproduced as apattern on the carpet. The subject may be any photographable design,picture, scene or the like which would give a pleasing effect to theeye. Having selected the subject, a color photograph of the subject istaken and reproduced. For purposes of illustration, a brick pattern willbe used as an illustrative example comprising twelve bricks arranged infour columns and three rows. Because of varying color depth patterns ofthe individual bricks, when such a subject is used in a repetitivepattern, certain undesirable and offensive effects may result. Forexample, if two of the bricks in a column were darker in shade or tonethan the remaining bricks in the pattern, then over multiple repeatsthese darker shades or tones would create the appearance of a dark line.To counteract this effect, the photographic reproduction is montaged toform a more uniform color appearance. To this end, the undesirable oroffensive parts of the photographic reproduction are cut out andreplaced with more sections which are more in character with the colorand tone of the balance of the reproduction. The replacement sectionsmay be taken from multiple reproductions of the original photograph;however, to provide a more realistic appearance and three dimensionallook, since bricks are seldom alike, and seldom formed in a flat plane,at least two initial photographs of the subject are taken from which themontage is effected. It should be readily apparent that more than twophotographs may be used and when multiple photographs of the subject areused, the photographs should be in the same scale.

Having montaged the subject, the next step is to establish a repeatpattern. The repeat must be true not only at the top and bottom of thepattern, but also at the sides so that multiple images of the subjectwill result in a continuous repetitive pattern without obvious orunnatural breaks in the pattern. To establish the repeat, having in mindthat the film from which the screen will be engraved will be a blow-upof the original subject, a section of the montaged photograph is cutout. This section basically shows the pattern which is to be repeated.As a practical matter, only with certain subjects will the repeat betrue or continuous without obvious discontinuities. To avoid suchdiscontinuities in the final pattern, the montaged photograph is firstcut transversely between its top and bottom edges to form two sections.The sections are now transposed and joined so that the top edge of theoriginal photograph is aligned with the original bottom edge. The newtop edge and new bottom edge of the joined sections are true and matchso as to present no discontinuities. The line where the original top andbottom edge are joined may present discontinuities in the design, thepattern is touched up by montaging with desired pieces.

The same process is repeated along the vertical to insure side by sidematching. The photograph matched along the horizontal is cut from top tobottom and the one side edge joined to the other side edge. Anydiscontinuities which may be present along the vertically joined edgesare touched up by further montaging. There now results a photographwhich is a one full pattern repeat of the chosen design.

The next step in the process is to make continuous tone color separationnegatives from which four half-tones and four posterized films will bemade.

Since four continuous tone negatives must be obtained in order to printthe proportionate parts of the different colors, the first steps involvebreaking down the colored original into four separate photographicimages. These are termed separation negatives.

In the process, the original colored photograph, or transparency, ispositioned before the lens of a large copying camera.

As an aid to the operator for correctly judging the results, a grayscale is photographed along with the original. This is a strip of paperor film with approximately ten steps in neutral shades of gray fromblack to white. In properly exposed and developed color-separationnegatives, the gray tones will match in all three.

Also registration marks are provided along-side the gray scale.

Over the camera lens is placed an orange-red filter which allows lightrays of that color only to pass; thus, the red portions of the originalare represented by tones of gray in the negative. In like manner,another piece of film is placed in the camera and another exposure madewith a green filter over the lens. This negative now contains the greenportion of the original. Again, a third piece of film is exposed througha deep-blue filter, this negative giving a record of the blue areas inthe original. Standard process filters used might be Wratten filters A25(red), B58 (green), and C5-47 (blue).

Typical exposures might be, for a red filter negative, 20 sec; greenfilter negative, 24 sec; and blue filter negative, 6 sec; Actualexposures would depend upon the lighting, camera settings, and kind offilm used. A transmission densitometer may be used for more exactchecking of results.

Although it is theoretically possible to print the full range of tonesusing only the three process colors, a black negative adds detail andcontrast to the printed reproduction. To make the separation negativefor the black color, the same general procedure used for the otherseparation negatives is followed. As a filter for this separation, thebest choice (called split filter) is to use all three of the previousfilters, one at a time, with exposures for each running 50-100% of thatused for each filter on the individual separations. Experience andjudgment will determine the exact time.

Because the light-transmitting ability of these filters, as well as thesensitivity of the film varies with the color, exposures must beregulated to obtain a set of separations which are properly balancedwith each other.

These four continuous tone negatives now represent the masters fromwhich the posterized and half-tone positive will be made.

Posterizing is a known process which achieves a very pleasingpresentation of a subject in flat colors. The color tone negatives areshot in one or more exposures on separate pieces of film. Exposures areregulated in that different tones of the original subject appear incontrast as black or clear. A short exposure shows up the dark areas ofthe subject only, while a long exposure shows up the light aras of theoriginal subject.

From each of the separation negatives a positive half-tone printlikewise is made. A positive represents tonal values reversed from thosein the negative, so the positive made from the red-filter negative willrepresent all colors except red, in other words, minus red. White lightminus red leaves blue-green, the color in which this positive should beprinted; in process work this color is called cyan. The green-filternegative produces a positive which must be reproduced in minus green,which is bluish-red or magenta. The blue-filter negative in turn gives apositive which must be printed as minus blue, or yellow. When the threepositives are brought together one over the other in exact alignment,the original subject is recreated.

As each of the screened shots is made, it is necessary to change theangle to the screen ruling. This will allow an optical blending of thedifferent colored dots to give the effect of the colors in the original;it also prevents a moire pattern, which appears when one screened imageis printed over another. Usually, screen angles are selected to put thestrong color at an angle at least noticeable to the eye, whereas theweaker color is used at the angle most pronounced to the eye. Thus, theblack printing plate will be made with the dots running at an angle of45 (as in the normal black and white halftone), and the yellow printingplate with the dots vertically and horizontally, or 90. Magenta and cyanplate will have the dot angles between the other two, at 75 and 105.

An analysis of all film is made from a selection of both posterized andhalftone. Either the halftones may be combined or the posterized filmmay be combined or combinations thereof may be made to provide a desiredvisual effect. In accordance with another embodiment of the invention, ahalf tone film and a posterized film of the same color may be combinedso that a new film of that color is created for added visual effects. Inthe alternative, a negative of one posterized film may be made andsuperimposed on the positive of another to develop a further negative ora new positive posterized half tone. As can be appreciated, variouscombinations can be arranged to provide new and unusual visual effectswhich give three dimensional appearance and styling. After analysis ofall film and selection of the desired combination, a color proof is madefor viewing. If the proof viewed is satisfactory, the selectedcombination is blown up or enlarged to its final desired repeat size.This blow up is used to prepare a production flat bed screen, rotaryscreen or continuous print belt screen by conventional techniques.

To this end, several processes for preparing stencil screens are known.Exemplary of such processes are those described in U.S. Pats. Nos.2,942,972; 3,407,726; 3,507,651; 3,507,652; 3,507,653; 3,507,654;3,568,610; and 3,586,609. Other exemplary processes for preparing rotaryscreens are described and illustrated in U.S. Pats. Nos. 2,387,048;2,628,903; 2,700,603; 2,811,444; 2,961,315 and 3,610,903. Such screensfind ready application in printing machines used for transferring imagesto a moving web. Machines which have been readily accepted in the carpetindustry for the production of multi-color printed carpet are the Zimmerflat bed printer and Zimmer rotry printer. Exemplary descriptions andillustrations of the apparatus and its operation may be found in U.S.Pats. Nos. 3,495,285; 3,565,001; 3,565,003; 3,596,595; 3,807,6113,811,378; 3,852,980 and 3,998,156. Of course, other forms of printersmay be used such as, that illustrated and described, for example in U.S.Pats. Nos. 3,374,731; 3,460,471; 3,304,860; and 3,675,571.

Inasmuch as the foregoing listed patents constitute prior art by whichthe films made in accordance with the present invention are used toeffectuate multi-color print dyeing, the subject matter of said patentsis hereby incorporated by reference.

The following example will serve to illustrate the manner in which thepresent process can be used to develop novel pattern styles for carpetsusing halftone photographic techniques.

EXAMPLE 1

A level loop pile carpet having a three dimensional appearance was madeas follows:

1. First, three photographs were taken of a vertical rock formation. Dueto varying color depths within each photograph and the rocks not beingin repeat, the photos were cut up and rocks from all three photos weremontaged together to form a more uniform color appearance. Also, arepeat was established.

2. The new montaged photograph was then touched up in color with paintto hide joining areas within the rock layout. The pattern repeat was setat 8-2/3inches with approximately a 1/2 dropped pattern to the side. Thephotograph was then placed perfectly square to camera so that nodistortion took place. Registration marks were placed at the four sidesof the photograph together with a tone strip and four individual filmswere shot each with a different set of filters to achieve fourcontinuous tone color separations: Yellow, Red, Blue and Black.

3. These four continuous tone negative films were then photographed ontofilm once again by means of projecting light through the film and intothe camera lens.

4. Using high contrast film (positive) various exposures on posterizedshots were taken of each of the four continuous tone films each at areduced size of 4-13/16 inch square.

5. In addition to posterized shots, various screened halftone filmpositives were taken, each shot having different dot screen density andeach color screened at different angles.

6. After analysis of all film a selection of both posterized andhalftone films were made that appeared to have the best effect whencombined. A cromalin color proof print was made of one posterized filmand the combined Red, Blue, and Black screened films.

7. After viewing the proof print, it was found that some of the montagejoinings still showed. Also that areas within the posterized film were alittle heavy adn could form repeat lines when several shorts were placedtogether. Using opaque paint the montage areas were corrected.

8. To balance pattern on posterized film, a less exposed posterized filmthat had areas within it that would look well substituted into chosenoriginal posterized film. In order to take areas out of one film andsubstitute them into another a mask was made. Using clear film placedover the original posterized film and less exposed posterized film bothin register, new registration holes were punched through these threelayers of film. Areas to be taken out of original film were covered withopaque material.

9. To take out unwanted area of less exposed posterized film, an exactnegative mask had to be shot onto film on a contact frame, the negativemask also had to be punched for exact registration with positive mask.To achieve a new and balanced posterized film using the best out of bothposterized films, a positive unexposed piece of film was punched withregistration marks same as all other film and placed upon registrationpins on contact frame upon which was registered the original posterizedfilm and then the original positive cut mask. Under glass firmly pressedto the film by vacuum an exposure was made to light. The next step wasto take off the mask and posterized film and place new, less exposedposterized film over already part exposed film and on top of thenegative mask. Another exposure to light was made. The newly createdfilm was then developed and now consisted of evenly balanced area ofdensity in the stone pattern.

10. To give more depth, yet another posterized film was created as inStep 9. Six films were now chosen as giving the correct effect.

11. The new posterized film of Step 9 was combined with the Yellowhalftone screened film and were both shot together as one film.

12. In order to have complete 100% print on carpet, with two screens, anegative of this film was made. This was now a positive film forcolor 1. Both films when placed together would cover the whole patternrepeat area.

13. At this stage, the films consist of:

Color 1 film (negative as achieved in Step 9;

Color 2 film (posterized and screened films combined as in Step 11;

Color 3 film (new posterized less exposed film as in step 10;

Color 4 film (Red screened film);

Color 5 film (Blue screened film); and

Color 6 film (Black screened film).

Films throughout this stage were at a size of 4-13/16 inches square andin order to see more of what was happening, these were each photographedtwice to enlarge to a size of 9 inches square.

14. Two cromalin color proofs were made in color of the following filmfor general effect:

a. 2, 4, 5 and 6, also

b. Blank blotch, 2, 3 and 5

The final repeat of design for carpet now once again had to be enlargedto its final size of 36 inches square. Due to the need for overlap incarpet printing, without changing pattern repeat size, color 1 filmprint area was enlarged 1/8 inch all way around each shape. All 6 films(positives) were reshot to negative form for carpet screen engraving.The need for working initially on a small scale is due to theapproximately 70 line screen (dots per inch) being too fine for carpetprinting. By enlarging the subject shot, say at 4-1/2 inches with a 70line screen to 36 inches, this provides approximately 8 dots per inch,which thereby provides the high detail and resolution desired forprinting carpet. It should be readily appreciated that the 8 dots perinch ruling, when used with a screen having mesh size of 74 enables thedots to encompass several holes or open squares in the mesh to reproducethe detail captured in the film. Once chosen as a production style, eachfilm repeat edge may have to be carefully touched by hand should apattern line be otherwise visable.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described, itwill be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that variouschanges thereto may be made without departing from the true spirit orfull scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:
 1. A method for continuously print dyeing textile fabrics witha continuous pattern wherein the image to be reproduced is taken from aphotograph and provides a continuous pattern having a three dimensionalappearance on the face of the fabric which comprises setting off aselected area of the photograph to form a pattern within a predeterminedoutline to establish the basic repeat for the pattern, preparing aplurality of continuous tone color separations of the selected patternto provide red, green, blue and black continuous tone negatives whichrepresent the colors of the original image, preparing a posterized andhalf-tone positive of each color separation, combining the posterizedand half-tone positives to provide a negative, engraving one or morescreens with the combined negative, passing the fabric to be dyed underthe engraved screens and selectively applying dye stuff through thescreens to reproduce the pattern on the face of the fabric.
 2. A methodas set forth in claim 1 wherein the fabric is carpet and the face is anupstanding pile yarn.
 3. A method for continuously print dyeing flatdyeable textile material with a continuous pattern wherein the image tobe reproduced is taken from a photograph and provides a continuouspattern having a three dimensional appearance on the face of thematerial which comprises setting off a selected area of the photographto form a pattern within a predetermined outline to establish the basicrepeat for the pattern, preparing a plurality of continuous tone colorseparations of the selected pattern to provide red, green, blue andblack continuous tone negatives which represent the colors of theoriginal image, preparing a posterized and a half-tone positive of eachcolor separation, combining the posterized and half-tone positive toprovide a positive, engraving one or more screens with the combinedpositives, passing the material to be dyed under the engraved screensand selectively applying dye stuff through the screens to reproduce thepattern on the face of the material.
 4. A method as set forth in claim 3wherein the material is a floor covering and the face is an upstandingpile yarn.